India's SARS Cases Double to 19

RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Associated Press Writer

The number of SARS cases in India doubled to 19 on Wednesday as nine staff members of a hospital that treated an infected family came down with the flu-like disease and another man tested positive after visiting Singapore.

So far, SARS has not caused any deaths in India. However, officials fear the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome from a patient to medical staff could signal a major jump in the progress of the disease in this country of more than 1 billion people.

The nine staff were among 22, including three doctors, of the Siddharth Hospital in the western Indian city of Pune who quarantined themselves in the hospital after it was shut down last week following treatment of four infected family members.

On Wednesday, a laboratory test confirmed the nine were carrying the SARS virus, said Sushil Kumar Shinde, chief minister of Maharashtra state where Pune is located. A second test is necessary for final confirmation.

The hospital director, however, said none of the nine were showing symptoms and there was no risk of the virus spreading.

"There is zero risk (of the disease spreading). I have not heard a single sneeze in this hospital for the past 10 days," Dr. Vijay Sethia told The Associated Press by telephone.

Earlier Wednesday, authorities had reported the country's 10th SARS case, a man in the southern state of Tamil Nadu who returned from SARS-hit Singapore last week.

The 44-year-old truck driver was admitted Friday to the Christian Medical College in Vellore, about 95 miles southwest of Madras, the state capital. Blood tests confirmed he had SARS but now he has "fully recovered," said Dr. Kurien Thomas, a professor at the college.

Of the other nine reported SARS cases in India, five have recovered. The other four are being treated in Bombay, New Delhi, Jaipur and Vellore.

The flu-like illness has killed more than 370 people and sickened about 5,300 worldwide. Some Indian doctors have said Indian authorities were treating SARS too casually and warned it could spread swiftly among the population.

"Health authorities did not give us any guidelines. We had to go to the Internet to find out what we required to do," said Sethia, the director of the Pune hospital.